Techtonic with Mark Hurst:
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from April 15, 2024
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Conversations with creators and thinkers who are charting the way forward in a tech-saturated society. In our shift to a digital future, we need alternatives to Big Tech. Homepage: techtonic.fm
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April 15, 2024: Richard Polt, author, "The Typewriter Revolution"
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Today: Richard Polt, author, “The Typewriter Revolution”
• The Typewriter Revolution: A Typist’s Companion for the 21st Century, by Richard Polt
• typewriterrevolution.com, the book site
• Richard’s blog, also called The Typewriter Revolution
• Typewriting Behavior, by Dvorak keymap inventor August Dvorak et al (1936), hosted at the Internet Archive
• Ed Park on typewriters (November 2023) – Richard's blog post mentioning novelist Ed Park and our Techtonic interview
• The Classic Typewriter Page
• Harry Stephen Keeler Society, dedicated to the work of a novelist who wrote “literature that tenaciously disregards convention to form its own bizarre criteria of excellence.”
• California Typewriter, the documentary that features Richard Polt (as well as Tom Hanks and others)
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| Richard Polt, author, "The Typewriter Revolution" | ||||||||||
| Tomaš Dvořák |
Game Boy Tune
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| Mark's intro |
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| Interview with Richard Polt |
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| Mark's comments |
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| Boston Typewriter Orchestra |
Left Blank
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0:54:34 (MP3 | Pop-up) | |||||||
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Listener comments!
ultradamno:
David (in London):
Bas NL:
listener james from westwood:
Wendy del Formaggio:
Webhamster Henry:
PaulRobeson1924:
McGroovey:
You're a good type.
The Butterman:
herb.nyc:
Funny, march 24 nytimes has review of children book “Olivetti”, author: Allie Millington (I have an Olivetti Lettera 32; dad bought for sis circa 1968)
Not funny, same edition has review of “burn this, a tech love story” by Kara swisher. Writer Adrian Chen sez author knows the issue bec she benefited from it, and is working on a book about internet culture as well
Mark Hurst:
Fredericks:
Mark Hurst:
Folsom:
dale:
Webhamster Henry:
listener james from westwood:
chresti:
herb.nyc:
Handy Haversack:
I have a half dozen sadly unused typewriters around the place, including my mom's. I'd love to rehabilitate them.
Mark Hurst:
Bas NL:
listener james from westwood:
Fredericks:
Mark Hurst:
Mark Hurst:
morphe':
listener james from westwood:
David (in London):
Mark Hurst:
Handy Haversack:
ultradamno:
herb.nyc:
The Butterman:
listener james from westwood:
Bas NL:
Webhamster Henry:
+ boots up instantly
+ uses recyclable paper
+ some have a correcting ribbon
- kid can huff wite-out
+ nobody will try to steal it
+ no chance of reading porn other than what he write himself
+ doesn't have to be electric
+ office supply stores still stock ribbons and carbon paper, and
might want to blow some out of their inventory.
The carriage ca-thunk most definitely happens with an electric typewriter, the
response is immediate, and it promotes stream of consciousness
writing, with the immediate gratification of hard copy, and deprecates
the obsession with "correct" spelling, as opposed to expression.
Spelling gradually shifts toward standard spelling with practice, so:
practice.
My son Ray also makes incredible pieces of art with his typewriter.
For a while, he was typing out the text of books he was reading, which was
great on so many levels: learning punctuation, positions of typewriter
keys, yes, even standard spelling - and variant spelling too.
And there's no need for passwords or dealing with ever-shifting and
confusing menus and windows.
Editing is not impossible on typewritten pages; a quick trip to the NY Main
Branch of the public library will put you in contact with their
fascinating displays of original manuscripts and typescripts of famous
books. I too enjoy the miracle of cut'n'paste and the delete key, but
for an eight year old, getting the words out in any form should take
priority. The same actually goes for aging old would-be writers like
myself.
"The perfect is the enemy of the good."
-- Voltaire
Handy Haversack:
morphe':
https://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/21/arts/the-pop-life-eastern-europe-hears-v-effect-s-rock.html
listener james from westwood:
Folsom:
Old Dave:
Webhamster Henry:
Webhamster Henry:
ultradamno:
morphe':
Handy Haversack:
Mark, we have evidence of 100 percent information retention over at least 500-year timespans with paper. Which current digital medium do you think could possibly do THAT well?!
listener james from westwood:
I wonder if the Feds have dumped their typewriter archive; they used to have many models to compare against typescript pertinent to investigations.
(Murakami Whywolf))):
With quills, all you need is a knife, oak-gall, rust, lamp-black, and a coöperative or slow duck, goose, or turkey.
DjLorraine:
ultradamno:
Webhamster Henry:
((((Murakami Whywolf):
Webhamster Henry:
Peter from Saranac Lake NY:
Jeff Moore:
Spikey BXL:
dale:
Handy Haversack:
cosmic matrix:
didn't have a computer at my house at first, so i used to type out programs in BASIC on a manual typewriter and enter into the school's apple IIe in the morning.
swivs:
Folsom:
cosmic matrix:
Dano59:
morphe':
Webhamster Henry:
Jeff Moore:
dale:
wenzo:
cuspidor:
cosmic matrix:
Dano59:
Webhamster Henry:
Jeff Moore:
Mark Hurst:
HyperDose:
Handy Haversack:
cosmic matrix:
P-90:
Will thee SG OCNY:
Handy Haversack:
HyperDose:
Dano59:
Handy Haversack:
Mark Hurst:
Mark Hurst:
Dano59:
Jeff Moore:
Old Dave:
morphe':
https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/8v8c3k/paris_1947_texting_on_the_seine_river_quais/#lightbox
Handy Haversack:
Rich from Wading River:
morphe':
Dano59:
And there's a proto-typewriter an early company sent to Sam Clemens, in situ inside the Mark Twain Study at Elmira College.
Tom from Stirling:
cosmic matrix:
Mark Hurst:
Spikey BXL:
Handy Haversack:
Tom from StirlingI:
Handy Haversack:
morphe':
steveo:
Will thee SG OCNY:
Jeff Moore:
Franco Twinkie:
Mark Hurst:
Old Dave:
Mark Hurst:
The Butterman:
Oh wait, that’s why we had vocal fry.
(Murakami Whywolf))):
steveo:
morphe':
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/25/guantanamo-files-casio-wristwatch-alqaida
cosmic matrix:
ScottJ:
Dano59:
cosmic matrix:
Handy Haversack:
K8 is not a fan.
Mark Hurst:
Franco Twinkie:
If that doesn't make you spitting mad, there's a typewriter repair shop around the corner and down the street.
Rich in Wading River:
ultradamno:
The Butterman:
Handy Haversack:
cosmic matrix:
Handy Haversack:
chris in the redwoods:
cosmic matrix:
Handy Haversack:
cosmic matrix:
morphe':
Rich in Wading River:
Handy Haversack:
Jeff Moore:
We've had discussions about it and I recall having been a little taken aback by your strong preference for a digital watch, because that's not my preferred way of telling time — I like hands.
That brief discussion has made me think about this issue a lot.
One thing which has occurred to me is that I can most immediately and intuitively UNDERSTAND what time it is by looking at analog-clock hands; but that configuration is noticably slower for me to translate into words if someone asks me the time than a digital watch with everything already in numbers. Hm.
Also: Mark, are you enough younger than me that digital watches already existed and were common back when you were first learning to tell time? THAT could make a difference.
Dano59:
cosmic matrix:
Franco Twinkie:
No more typing in the closet!
Handy Haversack:
castor:
MarciB:
bleubombersune:
cosmic matrix:
MarciB:
Franco Twinkie:
morphe':
Handy Haversack:
I use parking meters, but I notice that they are in no way coordinated!
Dano59:
Handy Haversack:
chresti:
DjLorraine:
.. .
. ..
Elena:
swivs:
Jeff Moore:
chris in the redwoods:
Webhamster Henry:
cosmic matrix:
Handy Haversack:
Deano de los Muertos:
wenzo:
Fredericks:
?:
Dano59:
Bas NL:
Elena:
DjLorraine:
cosmic matrix:
Webhamster Henry:
Will thee SG OCNY:
castor:
listener 126464:
Elena:
bleubombersune:
ultradamno:
Webhamster Henry:
ultradamno:
Mark Hurst:
P-90:
Webhamster Henry:
Handy Haversack: